June 2002

Contents

The
perfect crime

How to fight the terror
networks

Bottomless wells *

Kuwait's
Islamists, officially unofficial

Israel's empire state
building *

East Timor: hell to
paradise *

The right not to be
hungry *

Are you sure you're
French? *

Do you eat couscous at
home? How often? *

Morocco: Europe's migrant
Mexico *

We
can export sports cars and computers duty-free

Nigeria's cheated
students *

Albania, European but not
Europe *

{Identity crisis in the
Balkans *

Lines of
convergence *

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AFRICA, EDUCATION AND
EUROPEAN AID

The Cotonou
Convention

The Cotonou Convention between the 77 African,
Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and the 15 European Union states,
signed in the economic capital of Benin on 23 June 2000, marks an
important change in EU-ACP cooperation. The onvention, which replaces the
fourth Lomé Convention, has been signed for 20 years and is to be revised
every five years. It covers five main points:

1) As required by the World Trade Organisation
(WTO), it will be a priority objective in future to integrate the ACP
countries into the world economy by liberalising trade.

In particular, the convention abolishes the
price stabilisation mechanisms that safeguarded the export revenue of the
ACP countries from agricultural products (Stabex) and mineral products
(Sysmin).

2) Aid is no longer automatic. It will now
depend on the achievement of targets (institutional reforms, use of
resources, the reduction of poverty, long-term development measures). Each
country has a budget covering aid planned on the basis of a national
cooperation strategy (NCS).

3) The fight against poverty, the convention's
main objective, encompasses various fields: political (regional
cooperation), economic (development of the private sector, structural and
sectoral reforms), social (youth, equal opportunities), cultural and
environmental.

4) The populations concerned must be informed
and consulted to increase participation by the economic, social and local
community actors in the implementation of projects.

5) Provision is made for a political dialogue
on all matters of mutual interest, nationally and regionally as well as at
ACP level. Procedures, notably the suspension of aid, are put in place for
human rights violations or corruption.

Translated by Lorna Dale

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